'Deathsmiles' (Xbox 360)

There was a time when the 2D shoot-em-up ruled the roost, as queues of eager gamers flocked to arcade halls to blast away at brightly colored space mutants, or otherworldly monsters. Those days have long since gone, largely because the linear predictability of the genre soon lost its lustre. Deathsmiles brings 2D shooters blasting back to the Xbox 360 and that, largely, is a pretty good thing. In the game, a gaggle of anime teenage girls dressed in Victoriana-inspired fetish-wear obliterate an increasingly bizarre horde of demonic monsters. Deathsmiles is an absolute blast to play, but the problem is that there is simply not enough content to justify a full boxed release. A niche audience of hardcore shoot-em-up fans will no doubt relish the chance to rack up the high scores, but everyone else is best advised to give Deathsmiles a miss.

In the game's core story mode, all five sassy ladies - Windia, Casper, Follet, Rosa and Sakura - are playable in a variety of short levels. Each girl has her own 'spirit familiar', ranging from fairies to owls, which assist during the level by blasting the hell out of anything that moves. The girls also have slightly different blast attacks. The entire presentation of Deathsmiles is pretty much as would you expect from a Japanese game - lots of brightly colored and noisy things hurtling around the screen, yet you're never entirely sure what is actually going on. The typed dialog is surprisingly better than many other titles, although the use of text terms such as "omigod" and "omigosh" is pretty laughable. The rather brief story mode basically involves tackling the utterly insane Jitterbug, Sakura's father. After attempting to get back to the real world by opening a portal, Jitterbug actually opens a door to the Demonic World, causing thousands of monsters to spill out into the kingdom of Gilverado.

At its core, Deathsmiles plays like any other shoot-em-up, with the player scrolling along a 2D plane blasting away as enemies pour in. However, a big difference from other shoot-em-ups is the ability to shoot both left and right. Enemies attack from both sides and it's important to keep a close eye on where the biggest threat is coming from. The standard control system involves using the A and B buttons to fire left and right respectively, while playing version 1.1 switches the fire buttons to the triggers. Pressing down the A and B buttons simultaneously launches a powered-up blast attack lasting as long as the player's Item Counter (which refills to a maximum of 1,000 after picking up items dropped by dead enemies). The Y button launches a very useful bomb attack and the X locks onto enemies if you are close enough.

The range of foes is pretty good, such as giant one-eyed beasts, cackling witches and pigs dressed as demonic chefs. Each level finishes with a frantic and enjoyable boss battle, including notable fights with a giant bull, a possessed tree and a twisted face in the ground. New features in this updated version include the chance to play as Sakura for the first time, a bonus Ice Palace level and a new 999 mega difficulty setting for the truly hardcore. Hooking up to Xbox Live enables players to upload their scores to online leaderboards in the Score Attack mode, while replay clips can be downloaded to see how other players do their blasting.

Graphically, Deathsmiles is pretty much what you would expect from an arcade shooter - bright, loud and garish. The Xbox 360 mode upgrades the visuals to high definition, giving the game a smoother and crisper resolution. The colourful and retro feel is actually quite endearing and certainly harks back to the heyday of arcade gaming. There is also the option to play Arcade mode, which shifts everything back to the pixelated visuals, although that comes at the expense of less gameplay.

Unfortunately, there is an overall lack of sufficient content in Deathsmiles to justify a boxed release at full retail price. The game is fun to play but it's over far too quickly, leaving very little depth for the player to get their teeth into. It would have made much more sense to release Deathsmiles on Xbox Live Arcade, as was recently done with After Burner: Climax and many other titles. Even with all the extra items thrown in, this seems like a rather expensive package. After bashing through the story in just a few hours, the only real fun left to be had is in cranking up the difficultly level and trying to get better and better scores. But that is only really going to appeal to a relatively small number of hardcore players.

Overall, Deathsmiles perfectly shows why 2D shoot-em-ups were so much fun to play in the arcades all those years ago. Dispatching a frantic onslaught of brightly colored, ghoulish enemies is frantically enjoyable and offers a great dose of nostalgia for gaming's past. The problem, though, is that there is not enough content and replayability in the game for most players to justify paying a full sticker price. If the game was offered on Xbox Live Arcade then it would be much easier to recommend. In this form, hardcore shoot-em-up fans will find a lot to love in Deathsmiles, but everyone else is probably best advised to steer clear.